NPR Interviews Kentucky doctors consider patient care following the Supreme Court's abortion ruling

NPR journalist, Leila Fadel, conducted an interview to discuss threats Kentucky doctors are forced to consider regarding patient care following the Supreme Court's abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

You can listen to or read the full conversation here. Below you will find a portion of the transcript detailing the portion of Fadel’s interview with Ona Marshall, co-founder of the Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund & co-owner of EMW Surgical Center, and Dr. Majorie Fitzgerald, EMW Surgical Center Physician.

FADEL: Good morning.

MARJORIE FITZGERALD: Hi. Come on in.

FADEL: Thank you.

FITZGERALD: Good morning.

FADEL: Good morning. I'm Leila.

FITZGERALD: Marj (ph).

FADEL: The next morning, we meet Ona Marshall, the co-owner of the clinic, and Dr. Marjorie Fitzgerald (ph). She goes by Marj. She's an anesthesiologist at EMW. They show us around the now closed clinic.

FITZGERALD: So we're going to go on in here.

FADEL: OK.

FITZGERALD: So this has been set up to be so comfortable, this donated by a former patient.

FADEL: That's Dr. Fitzgerald showing us a room of recliners where patients wait. On average, they performed 20 to 25 procedures a day. People would come from across Kentucky and the country. But today, she says, the clinic feels hollow. And Marshall says, there have been brief interruptions in care before, when the Kentucky legislature enacted laws restricting abortions or forcing doctors who perform them to jump through new hoops.

ONA MARSHALL: But usually, we had an injunction in less than 24 hours.

FADEL: This time, it's unclear if the clinic will ever resume care. That depends partially on what Gatnarek does in court this week. Marshall and Dr. Fitzgerald say it's always been hard for patients to get in the door because of anti-abortion rights protesters outside. It was so difficult for the patients that when Dr. Fitzgerald would check their vitals...

FITZGERALD: I would invariably see patients' heart rates when they've just come in - like, they would lose their shoe because someone stepped on their shoe, knocking it off. I mean, they were physically assaulted sometimes. And their heart rate would be 120, you know? They'd be hypertensive. They were - I mean, it was like a stress response.

FADEL: Ona Marshall jumps in here.

MARSHALL: Last Saturday before Father's Day, we had 160 protesters.

FADEL: One hundred and sixty. So if you're coming in for care, you have to get through 160 people?

MARSHALL: Yes.

FITZGERALD: They have bullhorns.

MARSHALL: So they're blocking the sidewalk.

FADEL: Bullhorns?

FITZGERALD: Oh, yeah.

MARSHALL: Yeah. Loudspeakers, sometimes loudspeakers in the front and the back.

FADEL: Saying?

MARSHALL: Oh, saying...

FITZGERALD: It's murder, just insulting them.

MARSHALL: Yeah, insulting them about the clothes they wear. If they have shorts on, that's why they got pregnant.

FADEL: The protesters aren't outside on the day we visit. The few signs of the patients that typically come through here are the pile of thank you cards on a bird feeder in the corner and the six empty stretchers prepared for patients who would be waiting for procedures. Dr. Fitzgerald doesn't know if she'll ever help prepare another patient here for surgery.

What happens now for you?

FITZGERALD: I will do what I can to help women get service elsewhere.

FADEL: She's 74, a self-described morning person. Her white hair is partially pulled back. A red pen graces her white blouse. Keep our clinics, it reads, a little heart next to the words. Dr. Fitzgerald says she was drawn to this work because she started in health care before Roe v. Wade was law in the United States.

FITZGERALD: I went to medical school to be an obstetrician and then decided to be an anesthesiologist. But I was a nurse before I went to medical school. I worked at what was the city hospital here called Louisville General Hospital. And I saw patients who had sepsis from having had illegal abortions. I think having seen those women that did not have the option for safe care has never gone away. I still remember those women. Now we go back to the days of illegal abortions, and women's lives will be lost because of this.

FADEL: She recounts some of the stories of her patients at this clinic.

FITZGERALD: I've taken care of patients who had gone through IVF only to find out that they have a congenital anomaly that is not compatible with life. They are grieving. I've taken care of, a couple of weeks ago, a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old next to a patient who's 44 years old. It's the gamut of women that are desperate. And it's the hardest day in their life to a person. As they're going to sleep, they look up and thank me and thank the staff for being here and providing care for them.

FADEL: As we prepare to leave, Dr. Fitzgerald shares another reason she does this work, why she says she knows what a country without Roe v. Wade means.

FITZGERALD: My story is not unique. Many grandmothers, faced with a birth control failure in their young adult years pre-Roe v. Wade, had to resort to an illegal abortion.

FADEL: Wow.

FITZGERALD: And that was my story. And that's been my - one of my motivating factors in providing care for other women.

FADEL: Wow. What was that like? Can you describe it?

FITZGERALD: It was through the assistance of women who got me to a facility in Chicago. And I had what was an illegal abortion.

FADEL: And the facility you went to - we're sitting in a facility that is bright. I mean, we were describing the colors downstairs, purple and pink and green. And there are recliners. Was the facility like that?

FITZGERALD: No, it was dangerous.

FADEL: What did it look like?

FITZGERALD: It was dangerous. And it was none of this.

FADEL: She said nothing more about that day.